Thursday's Q&A: 'Why should I care about Wade's shoes?'

I held off on an immediate blog post from Thursday night's scrimmage to make the Q&A as fresh as possible. Let's get it rolling...

Ray Mendoza (@raypit79) asks via Twitter: Which guys you think will be on the court with 3 min left on a tight game?

Excellent question, Ray, and welcome back to the Q&A for another season. I've been throwing names around in my head for a couple of months and right now I'm set on these five for the Heat's crunch-time lineup: LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, Ray Allen and Shane Battier. It's the perfect balance. Wade, James and Bosh can get to the free-throw line with ease. Allen, Battier and Bosh can stretch defenses. Bosh, James and Wade can all post up their respective defenders in the lane. A case can be made for Mike Miller in the crunch-time lineup based on his ability as a rebounder but Allen is the NBA's all-time leader in three-pointers.

ARay asks via the blog: The Lakers,Knicks,Celtics,and the Spurs all will have quality BIGS. This could be the HEAT'S biggest obstacle. If so, who could the HEAT trade, in order to attract a quality big?

The Heat isn't planning on trading anyone. More likely, the team could cut the roster's 15th player during the season and sign a veteran big to the league minimum. The Heat did this last season when it released Mickell Gladness and picked up Ronny Turiaf. I wouldn't shock anyone if something similar happened this season.

Phil Seiter (SeiterBomb) asks via Twitter: Did Ray buy a house here?

Are you Ray Allen's stalker? If you're worried about him leaving town in the middle of the night, don't be. He'll be here for the next two seasons.

Andrew asks via the blog:

I enjoy your columns very much. But here is my question about Wade's shoes, and other similar-type issues:

1) Why should I care whether Wade wears Nike, Adidas, Puma or any other type of shoe?

2) Similarly, why was I supposed to care a number of years ago if Monday Night Football was on ESPN or ABC or whatever? And, similarly again, why was I suppose to care that Sunday Night Football was being switched to NBC? I use to feel more of an affiliation for NBC when I was a kid, but that was in the early '60s and it's because we got a color TV, and the NBC logo was a cool peacock with neat colors.

3) Along these same lines, why does the Miami Herald feel the need to tell me, once a week, what movie grossed the most dollars the previous week? Do they think that drives my decision on what movie to see? If so, why not save the money and fire Renee Rodriguez, whose reviews I pay attention to?

Andrew, excellent questions all. Let's start with your first question. I guess the best answer I can give you about why you should care about Wade's shoe deal is this: Wade is getting older, just had offseason knee surgery, missed the Olympics, and, to pile on the frustrating offseason, Jordan Brand didn't renew his deal. Wade's professional life is in a transitional period.

My answer to your second question: You're not supposed to care.

My answer to your third question: As Mr. Rodriguez might write in one of his movie reviews, your script went completely off the rails.

A better question, does Josh Harrellson remind anyone other than me of an Amish carpenter? But seriously, it's too early for me to chose between Pittman and Harrellson. Dexter has lost at least 25 pounds since last season in an attempt to emerge from the dregs of the team's roster in his contract year. Harrellson seems to have more skills around the rim than Pittman. Chances are good that both players will make the team. I'll guess I'll give the early advantage to Jorts but I can always change my mind after the preseason.

Ed asks via the blog: Is this Heat team going to try to beat the single-season winning record? If you were the coach of this Heat team, how many minutes would you let Lebron average for this season?

Going 72-10 is not happening. As for LeBron's minutes, Spoelstra would like to keep them around 37 minutes a night, but it's hard to keep LeBron out of the lineup.

Smitty asks via the blog: My question is, with the lack of 'good' big men playing center, aside from Bosh, and with the abundance of wing players; I read an article that posed the trade of Chalmers, Shane, and Miller, for Ja'vale McGee. Of course both sides would have to agree on terms, but if you were in charge, would you go for a trade like this one? The potential for McGee is there, and with Miller being broken more so than not, would it be a good gamble?? I would much rather keep battier and throw in Joel Anthony or somebody. Thank You

McGee? You mean this guy? I think not.

Sho (@ShoWontStop) asks via Twitter: When is Wade gonna be fit?

Wade didn't play in the scrimmage and he's probably not playing on Sunday in Atlanta. He might make a cameo on the court in Beijing so photographers can get a few shots of him in his new shoes. I wouldn't expect to see Wade play any significant minutes until the third week of preseason camp, if then.

Eddie (@NBABallerHoller) asks via Twitter: Isn't Tyrian the coolest guy on [Game of Thrones]? I wish the Dolphins could replace Ireland with him.

I can see Tyrian as Hand of the King in Dolphins Land. As for him being the coolest guy on the show, I'm going to have to disagree. Bronn is much cooler.

Jordub (@jordub) asks via Twitter: Is that a case of "training camp mustache" on your face?

No, my wife just said it's a case of "sexy." You don't want to know what else she said.